How to Legally Acquire Old GitHub Code and Preserve Commit History (Ethical Alternatives to Buying Accounts)

Many devs and teams are drawn to the idea of acquiring an "old GitHub account with commit history." The appeal is obvious: an account with long-lived contributions and repositories can convey provenance, show a long development timeline, and contain valuable code and history. But buying accounts is risky, frequently violates platform terms, and destroys trust and provenance. The good news: you can achieve the same technical and business goals through legitimate channels buying or licensing repositories, importing commit history, transferring ownership, and documenting provenance. This guide explains how to do that correctly, securely, and ethically.

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1. Why not to buy accounts (short and blunt)

Policy & legal risk: GitHub's Terms of Service and community rules typically forbid account trading or impersonation. Buying accounts can lead to account suspension and loss of access to the code you thought you'd purchased.

Provenance & trust: Commit history attached to an account gives identity and authorship context. If you buy an account, you break the chain of trust future users, employers, or auditors will reasonably distrust the provenance.

Security & liability: The original owner could retain hidden access (passwords, linked emails, SSH keys) or later dispute ownership. You could inherit old secrets accidentally committed to history.

Ethics & reputation: Presenting someone else's account as your own is deceptive. For open source, reputation matters; deception damages it.

Because of these dangers, instead of buying accounts, pursue legal acquisition of repositories and commit history or create clear provenance for any code you acquire.

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2. First principles: what people really want from an "old account"

When people say they want an old account with commit history, they usually mean one or more of these things:

Complete development history (commits, branches, tags) for auditability.

Attribution to original authors.

Long-lived repo under a recognizable owner (for credibility).

Access to project artifacts (binary releases, CI logs, wiki, issues, PRs).

You can get all of the above without buying a persona. The legitimate options below show how.

3. Legally acquiring code: buy or license the repositories, not the account

If the repo is privately owned and the owner wants to sell it, proceed like any IP acquisition:

Negotiate a sale or license with the repository owner. This is a contract between real legal entities; it can transfer copyright, grant exclusive or nonexclusive licenses, or assign maintainership.

Document exactly what transfers. Does the deal include: repository content, commit history, releases, issues, CI artifacts, domain names, logos, trademarks? Put it in writing.

Use GitHub's supported mechanisms to transfer repository ownership rather than transferring the person's account. Repositories can be transferred between users and organizations while preserving issues, PRs, stars, and history (subject to GitHub's rules).

Add a written provenance statement inside the repository (e.g., in README.md or NOTICE) describing the acquisition and original authors, to preserve transparency.

This approach preserves legal clarity and the commit history and avoids the problems of account transfers.

4. Due diligence checklist before acquisition

Before you agree to buy or license a repo, run a thorough due diligence process:

Code & history

Clone mirror: git clone --mirror to obtain the full refs and reflog offline.

Search for secrets: scan commit history for API keys, passwords, tokens, private certificates (use tools like truffleHog, git-secrets, or simple regex scans). If you find secrets, require remediation before closing.

Check license and thirdparty code: confirm all dependencies and included code are compatible with your intended use.

Verify tags and releases: confirm that release artifacts correspond to tags in history.

Security & operations

CI and deployment pipelines: identify external integrations (CI services, cloud deployments) and revoke or migrate credentials.

Access control: ensure you will be granted full admin privileges on the repo and any linked services.

Secrets management: require a plan to rotate or replace all credentials discovered.

Legal & IP

Confirm authorship & rights: ask for written attestations from contributors or a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) if necessary.

Check for third-party claims: ensure there are no pending copyright or IP disputes.

Define warranties & indemnities: in the purchase agreement, include warranties about ownership and indemnities for infringement claims.

Reputation & community

Audit issue and PR history for toxic incidents or unresolved legal complaints.

Check package registry accounts (npm, PyPI, etc.) if releases were published you'll likely want control of those too.

5. Technical steps to preserve commit history and authorship

If you legally acquire a repository and want to move it into your organization while retaining full commit history and authorship, follow these steps.

A. Transfer repository on GitHub (preferred)

Ask the seller to use GitHub's transfer feature (Repository Settings Transfer) to move the repo into your organization/user. This preserves issues, PRs, stars, watchers, and full commit history.

After transfer, adjust repository settings (collaborators, branch protections, webhooks, secrets).

B. Mirror clone and push (alternate)

If transfer is not possible, you can mirror and push:

# mirror clone the original repo (preserves all refs) git clone --mirror g..t@github.com:original-owner/project.git cd project.git # push to your new empty repo git remote set-url origin g..t@github.com:your-org/project.git git push --mirror

This preserves commits, tags, and branches. It does not preserve GitHub metadata like issues or PRs.

C. Preserving or rewriting author info (only with consent)

If you must map or normalize author metadata (for corporate policies), you must get contributor consent or include mapping disclosure. Tools:

git-filter-repo (recommended) powerful and faster than filter-branch.

git filter-branch deprecated for large or complex histories but still usable.

When rewriting authorship, document the mapping and provide both original and normalized author lists in a provenance file.

6. Preserving provenance and transparency

Provenance the clear record of who wrote what and when is crucial for trust and legal safety. After acquisition:

Add a PROVENANCE.md or NOTICE file describing the acquisition date, original owners, license status, and any author mappings.

Tag the commit where ownership changed with a signed tag: git tag -s v0.0.0-acquisition -m "Acquired on YYYY-MM-DD by Acquirer Name" Signed tags help auditors and downstream users.

Keep an "original" branch (read-only) that preserves untouched history, and create a main or trunk for the new organization's ongoing work. This makes the acquisition transparent.

7. Handling issues, PRs, and community history

If you transfer a repository, GitHub retains issues and pull requests. If you mirror it, you must migrate issue history manually if needed:

Export issues and comments (GitHub API or tools like github-archive-importer) and import to the new repo as data or archived records.

Notify contributors: send a public announcement (e.g., pinned issue or README note) explaining the acquisition, new maintainers, and how to contact maintainers about authorship or licensing questions.

8. Contractual language and negotiation tips (what to include in the deal)

If you are buying a repository or licensing code, include clear contractual terms. Key clauses:

Scope of transfer: list repositories, branches, releases, registry packages, domain names, Docker images, and other assets.

IP assignment or license: is this an assignment of copyright or a license? Be explicit.

Representations & warranties: seller warrants they own or have the right to license all code and that no third-party claims exist.

Indemnity: seller indemnifies buyer for IP claims arising from pre-acquisition contributions (negotiable).

Transition assistance: seller provides a defined period of technical support to hand over CI, keys, and operational details.

Secrets & credential remediation: seller must rotate credentials and provide proof.

Contributor confirmations: if many contributors exist, require CLAs or seller warrants they hold rights.

Have a lawyer review any assignment of IP open-source licenses complicate the picture and some contributions may be under different licenses.

9. Security checklist (postacquisition)

Immediately after transfer:

Rotate all secrets & tokens discovered in the history or configuration (CI, cloud, thirdparty services).

Revoke unused access keys and review deploy keys.

Audit GitHub organization settings: branch protection, required checks, 2FA enforcement.

Set up secure secret storage (e.g., GitHub Secrets, HashiCorp Vault) and migrate CI to use it.

Run static analysis and dependency scans on current code for known vulnerabilities.

10. Alternatives if you only want commit history for training, audit, or analysis

If your desire for history is analytic (research, training models, or audits), consider:

Using public archives (e.g., GitHub Archive, GHTorrent) to obtain historical data legally and at scale.

Asking for a git bundle: the repo owner can export a git bundle file (git bundle create repo.bundle --all) and give you that bundle a clean, auditable transfer of history that doesn't require account changes.

Requesting provenance documentation and contributor manifests for model-training transparency.

These options avoid account trading while giving you the history you need.

11. Sample checklist for closing the deal (quick recap)

Signed agreement: IP scope, price, warranties, indemnities, transition terms.

Mirror clone or GitHub transfer executed.

Secrets scan and rotation completed.

Ownership and author provenance documented in PROVENANCE.md.

CI, packages, and registry access migrated, tested, and secured.

Announcement to community and contact point for contributor inquiries.

Legal closing: confirmation of no outstanding claims and that all deliverables are received.

12. Final notes on ethics and long-term thinking

Acquiring code responsibly preserves value and reputation. When you do it cleanly:

You keep the trust of users and contributors.

You minimize legal risk and future disputes.

You make the codebase easier to maintain and integrate.

Buying accounts sidesteps all that and creates fragility. Focus on transferring repos, documenting the handover, and treating original authors with respect. In the long run, clarity and transparency are worth far more than a superficial "old account" badge.

Conclusion

If your goal is to obtain commit history, authorship, and the credibility that comes with an established project, the right route is a documented, contractual acquisition or transfer of repositories not account purchases. Use GitHub's transfer tools or mirror+push while preserving commits, run thorough due diligence and security remediation, and record provenance clearly. That path gives you the same technical benefits while keeping you on the right side of law, policy, and ethics.